Vsm Group Examination of Strategic Position and...

1. INTRODUCTION Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2005, p. 9) define strategy as the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competencies with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations. Strategy is therefore the long term direction of an organisation. Strategic Management can be defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organisation to achieve its objectives (David 1999, p. 9). Strategic management therefore focuses on the activities of the organisation that contribute to the achievement of organisational success. These†¦show more content†¦3.1. PESTEL Political variables †¢ Political stability in Sweden and the United States. †¢ The prevalence of foreign trade regulations in the USA. Economic variables †¢ Decline in demand for sewing machines in past two decades. †¢ Decline in industry profitability. †¢ Low sales in respect of Pfaff within three years of acquisition. †¢ High production costs in the German Pfaff plant. †¢ Investment by Juki and other industry players into the US market. Socio-cultural factors †¢ Not using a consultant for the strategic planning weekend meeting made the strategy process unstructured and was a shift from the company’s way of doing things. †¢ Encouraging participation in the strategy process by middle management through a series of seminars. †¢ The adoption of the strategy document changed workers’ attitudes. The strategy document served as a guide on operational matters. The mission statement was frequently promoted in the company’s public relations. †¢ Focus shift from technical features to customer satisfaction. Technological variables †¢ Extended support for business development to encourage retailers to carry the Husqvarna Viking product line exclusively. †¢ Cooperation with Jo-Ann Fabrics Crafts, a large retailer of fabrics with over a thousand stores throughout the USA, setting up small sewing machine outlets inside their fabric stores.Show MoreRelatedVsm Group Strategy Essay4776 Words   |  20 PagesIntroduction VSM Group manufactures markets and sells consumer sewing machines, holds a leading position in the medium to high-end segments of household sewing machines on the world market. After redirection, VSM had carried out a set of strategies to pull itself from inferior position into an enjoyable place. In this report, the strategic position of VSM in 1997 will be analyzed first, along with three divisions, the environment, strategic capability, expectations and purposes. Strategic options willRead MoreExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagesand 15 case examples which have been chosen to enlarge speciï ¬ c issues in the text and/or provide practical examples of how business and public sector organisations are managing strategic issues. The case studies which follow allow the reader to extend this linking of theory and practice further by analysing the strategic issues of speciï ¬ c organisations in much greater depth – and often providing ‘solutio ns’ to some of the problems or difï ¬ culties identiï ¬ ed in the case. There are also over 33 classicRead MoreOperational Management36687 Words   |  147 Pagesthe publisher REF: OPS 2013 Operations Management TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Operations and Productivity Operations Strategy in a Global Environment Total Quality Management Forecasting Design of Goods and Services Process Strategy and Capacity Planning Location Strategies Human Resources, Job Design and Organisational Effectiveness Supply Chain Management Inventory Management and JIT Systems Aggregate Scheduling Materials Resources Planning